


in this world full of people (there's one killing me.)

by serenitysea



Series: something i need [1]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: 5+1 Things, F/M, and might be delighted to know if he were ever to find out, and ward doesn't try to hide, in which fitz has several honorable mentions, in which skye learns things about ward, skye/ward - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-09
Updated: 2014-05-09
Packaged: 2018-01-24 02:06:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1587701
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/serenitysea/pseuds/serenitysea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Or; Five things Skye learned about Ward (and one thing she wishes she hadn't.)</p><p>Spoilers through 1.20.</p>
            </blockquote>





	in this world full of people (there's one killing me.)

**Author's Note:**

> So, these two. Still killing me. I just downloaded 1.21 and I'm a little scared to watch, not going to lie. Thanks for bearing with me as I experiment a 5 +1 style. It's been on my bucket list of writing prompts and I'm glad these two were the ones who dragged it out of me. Might do a followup with Ward's POV (since that seems to be the way I write these days.)
> 
> Title from OneRepublic's _Something I Need_.

5.} _He loves games._

He denies (at first) that he likes games. 

Which, of course, is why she makes it her mission to slaughter him in every game of Battleship they ever play. 

It turns out that he doesn't just limit his enjoyment to Battleship, or games that she can see him label as "strategic" and "problem solving." 

He likes when the team plays Scrabble (she has a fleeting moment to distractedly wonder if this was what families did together; _did they play board games on weeknights after homework was completed? which game was preferred? does monopoly start epic feuds between parents and their offspring the way FitzSimmons insist?_ ) and when they play pranks on each other (she wonders if he did this sort of thing with his brothers) and has glimpsed the way he lets his gaze linger a second too long in the toys aisle when they have stopped in a local shop for supplies. 

She asks him, once, when he has had a few drinks (after Jemma has thoroughly decimated everyone in Scrabble) why he likes to play so much. 

"It helps you forget," he'd said, staring closely into his near-empty glass. She has a glimpse of something not quite _settled_ in her rigid S.O. and is about to question it further when he sets the glass down with a click and tells her to be ready for training at some ungodly hour in the morning. 

She rolls her eyes and heads to her bunk (because the last time she was late, it hadn't been pretty) and wonders if she'll ever really understand him. 

* * * 

4.} _He lets his guard down at the most unconventional of moments._

She wears him down until he starts to feel comfortable talking to her. 

It doesn't seem fair that she should always been the one spilling her guts -- just because she is the hacker with no known history doesn't mean she has no backstory -- but he's taught her that turnabout is fair play, and this is no exception. 

Skye likes to catch him after he's exhausted from training, or just before he nods off to sleep near the end of a movie -- because that is when he is the most honest in his answers. Somehow he's a little more human then, a little less robot. 

She learns some of her favorite things about him this way. 

(Ward hates gummy bears. He loves Oreos but hates the dark, dusty mess they make. Though he would never tell Fitz, he has a deep appreciation for a well-crafted sandwich -- she's not quite sure why telling Fitz would make a difference, but he insists that it would, and swears her to secrecy. She'd be amused if he wasn't so serious about it.) 

He never says he has a favorite football team. He never talks about sports. 

* * * 

3.} _He teaches her that fighting doesn't just mean using your fists._

Obviously, the first thing she learns is how to properly wrap her hands and knuckles to prevent bruising of the hands and bloodied knuckles. He is adamant that she takes the proper safety measures any time they are training. It is a non-negotiable with him. 

After she's learned that well enough, he deems her worthy of moving onto strength training -- which is nowhere near as fun as it sounds. She does push ups until her arms shake with tension and sit ups until she cannot laugh at Fitzsimmons without agony tearing through her abdomen. 

He makes her lift weights. (Girly dumbbells that seem more insulting than anything else but after a few weeks, even she can't deny that her arms are looking _defined_.) 

And through all of this, he talks. 

In fact, sometimes it seems like this is the _only_ time when he talks. He throws words out like strategy, manipulation, tactical advantage. Assets, variables, informants, undercover. Hard decisions; how to make a tough call and when you know to walk away. 

He shows her how to hold a gun. (And rolls his eyes when she says ' _bang bang_.') 

One day she's sprawled on the mats in the cargo bay, eyes closed with exhaustion after he's flipped her to the ground for the hundredth time and asks, "What is the _point_ of it all?" 

He doesn't answer right away and she opens her eyes after a few moments to make sure he hasn't just left in frustration. (He used to do that, after Miles. She hates thinking about it.) 

Ward stares at her intently and holds her gaze with more confidence than she's given him credit for. "There may come a time when I'm not there to help you, Skye." 

She brushes it off with a laugh and accepts his hand up. "Yeah right, like they're going to let me go into the field alone. The baby agent in training who makes sound effects when she pretends to shoot a gun." 

The tension in the moment breaks easily (as she had intended it to) and he tugs her sharply forward. Instinct takes over before she can even think about it and she maneuvers in a way that sends him spinning to deflect her fist and knee. 

Her jaw drops open in shock and she grins widely. "Check it out! Maybe I'm actually learning something!" 

"Could be your SO knows what he's talking about," Ward replies, motioning for her to stretch and keep her limbs fluid. 

"Nah." She scoffs, pulling an arm behind her shoulder and ignoring the answering twinge she feels in her opposite side. 

Ward shakes his head and begins to walk her through their cool down. It should be sad (but it isn't) that she considers it a small victory he's letting her go for the day without an additional fifty sit ups. 

(Ian Quinn puts two bullets in her stomach a week later.) 

* * * 

2.} _There is no place safer than inside the circle of his arms._

She doesn't make a big deal about it (while she has been known to make a scene, it's never about the things that really matter to her) because she doesn't want anyone on the Bus to get the wrong idea. (She's not exactly sure what that would be, just that there would be one. For god's sake -- Fitz, _alone_ \-- is the worst gossip she's ever met.) 

When they first started training and he taught her how to disarm a person who had a gun trained on your heart, she must have spun around and back into his chest about a thousand times. Ward insists that her body needs muscle memory. 

(Skye wants to protest this term as she is having a lot of memories… and muscles are not exactly featuring prominently in them. At least not _hers_ , anyway.) 

After she recovers from being shot, Ward insists on taking it easy with her training. She turns his argument back around and tells him she needs to build her muscle memory back up before it atrophies completely and she is utterly helpless. 

(They don't talk about how she was, in fact, utterly helpless in that wine cellar. They don't talk about how no amount of muscle memory can help prepare you for being shot. 

They don't talk about how the only muscle memory she has right now is of her fingers laced with his, drugged half out of her mind, trying to recover from what should have been a fatal wound.) 

Because he is Ward, he can say things like how he is her SO and has the right to overrule her personal requests for training if he decides she is not physically ready to dive back in. 

Because she is Skye, she takes advantage of his distracted, lecturing posture to grab his gesturing hand, swing her body around and fall back against his chest. 

His arms come around her automatically ( _muscle memory_ , indeed) and she exhales deeply so that she can feel each her individual vertebrae connecting against his sternum. Already she can feel the tension rising in him and knows that he is about to blast her for her foolishness but she doesn't care. 

She closes her eyes for a few moments, lets her body sag against his, and finally, _finally_ feels what she's been looking for weeks: _safe._

Ward is nothing if not observant and the fight drains out of him. Though he is the consummate professional and wouldn't ever let things get out of line, there is a moment where she feels him hold her just a little bit tighter than he usually does, for seconds longer than he normally would allow. 

It feels like all the scattered pieces of her come knitting back together while he holds her in place and she breathes a sigh of relief. 

_Safe._

* * * 

1.} _He kisses the way he approaches a threat._

Strong, all-consuming, obliterating everything in his path. 

(There really isn't much more that needs to be said.) 

* * * 

0.} _Hail Hydra._

God, she _aches_. 

* 

**Author's Note:**

> AUGH the feels.


End file.
